-The Times of India NOIDA: More than 40% of contractual workers have been laid off from Noida's garment industry in the past 40 days after demonetisation was announced. Gautam Budh Nagar district labour department and workers' associations confirmed that while many garment export and manufacturing units have started pulling down shutters, many people who work on a contractual basis have been rendered jobless. Noida has 1,800 garment manufacturing and export units. Of...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Union home ministry today barred a non-government organisation run by a Narendra Modi-critic from receiving foreign funds, revoking its FCRA licence and that of three others for alleged "undesirable activities against public interest". The action, which drew accusations that the government was trying to stifle voices of dissent, means Anhad, run by Shabnam Hashmi, the Marwar Muslim Educational and Welfare Society, and the Gujarat-based Navsarjan Trust and...

-Down to Earth Collective Rights to undo historic injustice meted out to indigenous people remain completely ignored by the states, says Citizens’ report Ten years after the historic Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by the Indian lawmakers, only three per cent of villages or communities could secure their Rights over forest resources which include land and the produce from the forests and water, states the Citizens’ Report prepared by Community...

-Oxfam India Blog Hari Bandhu Kanhar (45 years) is a Gond tribal of Jhankarmunda village, district Bolangir, Odisha whose family recently received legal title over his forest land under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. On being asked about the difference of being landless and having a land title, he shared that the biggest difference is that he is not hounded by the fear of being evicted from his land. Narratives such as...

-The Hindu On the tenth anniversary of the historic passage of the Forest Rights Act, tribal resistance to defend their Rights is growing even as government after government tries to dilute its provisions On this day 10 years ago the historic Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act was passed in the Lok Sabha. Its conception and passage was the result of the decades of struggles and...